Even as more homes come on the market for this popular sales season, they’re flying off fast.

Home prices have now surpassed their last peak, and at the entry level, where demand is highest, sellers are in the driver’s seat.

by Diana Olick | @DianaOlick

Spring homebuyers are pounding the pavement at a furious pace, but the pickings are getting ever slimmer.
Even as more homes come on the market for this traditionally popular sales season, they’re flying off fast, with bidding wars par for the course. Home prices have now surpassed their last peak, and at the entry level, where demand is highest, sellers are firmly in the driver’s seat.

“I’ve been selling real estate for 25 years and this is the strongest seller’s market I have ever seen in my entire real estate career,” said David Fogg, a real estate agent with Keller Williams in Burbank, California. “A lot of our sellers are optimistically pricing their homes in today’s market, and I have to say in most cases we’re getting the home sold anyway.”

Fogg listed a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,240-square-foot home in Burbank for $789,000 and had three offers before the first open house Sunday. In the Los Angeles-area market, that is considered an entry-level home. The open house drew more than 100 potential buyers, most of them already weary of the competition.

“It’s very tough. Most of the listings are intentionally listed a little low to get a lot of attention, and it’s not uncommon to get 12 to 16 offers on one property,” said Jilbert Mosessian, who has been renting in the neighborhood but wants to buy. “In three properties recently, we did our best, we went considerably over the listing price, and we were told that there were still five people above us and they were only going to deal with them.” Mosessian said he will have to try another neighborhood and cut his expectations.

The Zwicker family also toured the Burbank home, with their three children in tow. They have been living in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home for five years, not a situation they want to continue. “Ideally we’d love to get into a four-bedroom, two-bath, but the idea of that in Burbank is slim to none,” said Leslie Zwicker. They are now considering putting an addition on their current home. More homes came on the market in March, but fierce demand made quick work of them. At the end of the month, the supply of homes for sale nationally was down 6.6 percent compared with a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. Unsold inventory is a slim 3.8-month supply. A balanced market between buyers and sellers has a five-to-six-month supply.

Properties sold in March were on the market for an average 34 days, down from 45 in February and 47 in March 2016.
In order to compete, buyers are coming in with cash and dropping contingencies. That is because in such a hot market, homes are appraising well below the sale price. That makes it even harder for first-time, mortgage-dependent buyers to succeed.

“I’m talking to the buyers in advance about these problems, so that we address the appraisal issues before we go to escrow and nobody is surprised in three weeks when we get an appraisal that’s on the lower side,” said Fogg.
As a result, home prices continue to hit new peaks each month. Prices nationally are up 5.7 percent in February year over year, according to Black Knight Financial Services. Washington, Oregon and Colorado are seeing the biggest price gains, as buyers flee high prices in California.
Real estate brokerage Redfin used its search engine to look specifically at which markets had the most people searching for homes outside their city. San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York took the top three spots.

“Fast-growing coastal cities may be generating the high-paying jobs, but they haven’t created enough budget-friendly housing to keep pace,” said Nela Richardson, Redfin’s chief economist. “The price of real estate and desire for homeownership is compelling many to uproot and seek housing in more affordable communities.”

If Trump fails to drain the swamp, it proves once and for all that the system is so deeply corrupted, it's beyond "reform." NO ONE can repair what's broken in Washington D.C., and that means we should all focus on restructuring society in a whole new way that isn't based on centralized government.

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Have you ever thought about what comes after the bubble? In 2008 we got a short preview of what life will be like, but most Americans seem to have come to the conclusion that the last financial crisis was just a minor bump in the road toward endless economic prosperity.

But of course the truth is that the ridiculously high debt-fueled standard of living that we are enjoying now is not sustainable, and after this bubble bursts it will be an extremely painful adjustment for our society.

Since the last financial crisis, the U.S. national debt has nearly doubled, corporate debt has doubled, stock valuations have reached exceedingly ridiculous extremes, the student loan debt bubble has surpassed a trillion dollars, we are facing the largest unfunded pension crisis in U.S. history, and in many parts of the country (particularly the west coast) we are facing a housing bubble that is even worse than the one that burst in 2007 and 2008. And even with all of these bubbles, U.S. GDP growth has been absolutely anemic. Even if you believe the grossly manipulated numbers that the federal government puts out, the U.S. economy grew at a “miserably low” rate of just 1.6 percent in 2016…

In terms of GDP, the fourth quarter was revised up slightly, but there were adjustments for prior quarters, and overall GDP growth for the year 2016 remained at a miserably low 1.6%. We’ve come to call this the “stall speed.” It’s difficult for the US economy to stay aloft at this slow speed. As Q4 gutted any hopes for a strong finish, GDP growth in 2016 matched the worst year since the Great Recession.

And corporate profits, despite a stock market that has been surging for years, are even worse. A lot worse. They’ve declined for years. In fact, they declined for years during the prior two stock market bubbles, the dotcom bubble and the pre-Financial-Crisis bubble. Both ended in crashes.

The Money Project is an ongoing collaboration between Visual Capitalist and Texas Precious Metals that seeks to use intuitive visualizations to explore the origins, nature, and use of money.
The value of money is not static. In the short term, it may ebb and flow against other currencies on the market. In the long-term, a currency tends to lose buying power over time through inflation, and as more currency units are created.
Inflation is a result of too much money chasing too few goods – and it is often influenced by government policies, central banks, and other factors. In this short timeline of monetary history in the 20th century, we look at major events, the change in money supply, and the buying power of the U.S. dollar in each decade.

A Short Timeline of U.S. Monetary History

1900s
After the Panic of 1907, the National Monetary Commission is established to propose legislation to regulate banking.
U.S. Money Supply: $7 billion
What $1 Could Buy: A pair of patent leather shoes.

1910s
The Federal Reserve Act is signed in 1913 by President Woodrow Wilson.
U.S. Money Supply: $13 billion
What $1 Could Buy: A woman’s house dress.

1920s
U.S. dollar bills were reduced in size by 25%, and standardized in terms of design.
The Fed starts using open market operations as a tool for monetary policy.
U.S. Money Supply: $35 billion
What $1 Could Buy: Five pounds of sugar.

1930s
To deal with deflation during the Great Depression, the United States suspends the gold standard. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 6102, which criminalizes the possession of gold.
By no longer allowing gold to be legally redeemed, this removes a major constraint on the Fed, which can now control the money supply.
U.S. Money Supply: $46 billion
What $1 Could Buy: 16 cans of Campbell’s Soup

1940s
The massive deficits of World War II are almost financed entirely by the creation of new money by the Federal Reserve.
Interest rates are pegged low at the request of the Treasury.
Under Bretton-Woods, the “gold-exchange standard” is adopted.
U.S. Money Supply: $55 billion
What $1 Could Buy: 20 bottles of Coca-Cola

1950s
The Korean War starts in 1950, and inflation is at an annualized rate of 21%.
The Fed can no longer manage such low interest rates, and tells the Treasury that it can “no longer maintain the existing situation”.
U.S. Money Supply: $151 billion
What $1 Could Buy: One Mr. Potato Head

1960s
An agreement, called the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord, is reached to establish the central bank’s independence.
By this time, U.S. dollars in circulation around the world exceeded U.S. gold reserves. Unless the situation was rectified, the country would be vulnerable to the currency equivalent of a “bank run”.
U.S. Money Supply: $211 billion
What $1 Could Buy: Two movie tickets.

1970s
In 1971, President Richard Nixon ends direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold.
The period following the Nixon Shock is uncertain. The federal deficit doubles, stagflation hits, and the oil price skyrockets – all during the Vietnam War.
Over the decade, the dollar loses 1/3 of its value.
U.S. Money Supply: $401 billion
What $1 Could Buy: Three Morton TV dinners.

1980s
The stock market crashes in 1987 on Black Monday.
The Federal Reserve, under newly-appointed Alan Greenspan, issues the following statement:
“The Federal Reserve, consistent with its responsibilities as the nation’s central bank, affirmed today its readiness to serve as a source of liquidity to support the economic and financial system.”
The Dow would recover by 1989, with no prolonged recession occurring.
U.S. Money Supply: $1,560 billion
What $1 Could Buy: One bottle of Heinz Ketchup.

1990s
This decade is generally considered to be a time of declining inflation and the longest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history.
During this decade, many improvements are made to U.S. paper currency to prevent counterfeiting. Microprinting, security thread, and other features are used.
U.S. Money Supply: $3,277 billion
What $1 Could Buy: One gallon of milk.

2000s
After the Dotcom crash, the Fed drops interest rates to near all-time lows.
In 2008, the Financial Crisis hits and the Fed begins “quantitative easing”. Later, this would be known as QE1.
U.S. Money Supply: $4,917 billion
What $1 Could Buy: One Wendy’s hamburger.

2010-
After QE1, the Fed holds $2.1 trillion of bank debt, mortgage-backed securities, and Treasury notes. Shortly after, QE2 starts.
In 2012, it’s time for QE3.
Purchases were halted in October 2014 after accumulating $4.5 trillion in assets.
U.S. Money Supply: $13,291 billion
What $1 Could Buy: One song from iTunes.
The Changing Value of a Dollar
At the turn of the 20th century, the money supply was just $7 billion. Today there are literally 1,900X more dollars in existence.
While economic growth has meant we all make many more dollars today, it is still phenomenal to think that during past moments in the 20th century, a dollar could buy a pair of leather shoes or a women’s house dress.
The buying power of a dollar has changed significantly over the last century, but it’s important to recognize that it could change even faster (up or down) under the right economic circumstances.
About The Money Project
The Money Project is an ongoing collaboration between Visual Capitalist and Texas Precious Metals that seeks to use intuitive visualizations to explore the origins, nature, and use of money.

Men behind the curtain?
Men who control the government and its policies from the outside?
Men who have immunity from prosecution?
Men who tell presidents what to do?
Men who can hide in plain sight? Men who don’t need to be elected to public office? Men who can laugh at their critics and call them conspiracy theorists and purveyors of fake news? Men who can determine financial and banking policy? Men who can set up corporate tribunals that nullify national courts? Men who can set virtually any national policy agenda they want to?
If an honest press existed, all this would be out in the open by now.

If, as many people are now saying, the CIA and NSA and neocons are the unelected Deep State, then the people I’m talking about would be the Deep, Deep State.
Read on.
Many people think the Trilateral Commission (TC), created in 1973 by David Rockefeller, is a relic of an older time.
Think again.
Patrick Wood, author of Trilaterals Over Washington, points out there are only 87 members of the Trilateral Commission who live in America. Obama appointed eleven of them to posts in his administration.
Keep in mind that the original stated goal of the TC was to create “a new international economic order.” Knowing that you have to break eggs to make an omelet, consider how the following TC members, in key Obama posts, could have helped engender further national chaos; erase our sovereign national borders; and install binding international agreements that will envelop our economy and money in a deeper global collective: a new world order:
Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary;
James Jones, National Security Advisor;
Paul Volker, Chairman, Economic Recovery Committee;
Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence.

All Trilateralists.
In the run-up to his inauguration after the 2008 presidential election, Obama was tutored by the co-founder of the Trilateral Commission, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In Europe, the financially embattled nations of Greece and Italy brought in Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti as prime ministers. Both men are Trilateral members, and Monti is the former European chairman of the Trilateral Commission.

In the US, since 1973, author Wood counts eight out of 10 US Trade Representative appointments, and six out of eight World Bank presidents, as American Trilateral members.
Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote, four years before birthing the TC in 1973, with his godfather, David Rockefeller: “[The] nation state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force. International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation state.”
Several other noteworthy Trilateral members: George HW Bush; Bill Clinton; Dick Cheney; Al Gore. The first three men helped sink the US further into debt by fomenting wars abroad; and Gore’s cap and trade blueprint would destroy industrial economies, while vastly increasing the numbers of people in Third World countries who have no access to modern sources of energy.
Does all this offer a clue as to why the US economy has failed to recover from the Wall Street debacle of 2008, why the federal bailout was a handout to super-rich criminals, and why Obama took no actions which would have brought about an authentic recovery?
A closer look at Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s circle of economic advisers reveals the chilling Trilateral effect: Paul Volker; Alan Greenspan; E. Gerald Corrigan (director, Goldman Sachs); and Peter G Peterson (former CEO, Lehman Brothers, former chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations). These men are all Trilateral members.

Analyst/trader Gregory Mannarino says war should figure into any investment strategy because one is coming. Mannarino says, “It should be clear to people that we are now at a pivotal moment. . . . Whenever the economy in the United States starts to get shaky, unfortunately, we seem to escalate into new wars, and I think that is where we are going. We have spoken about this in the past. This is their grand goal. War is the goal. War has always been the goal. We are already in it, and I really believe this war started a while ago. It’s now really starting to come into the public light, and now we are in the propaganda war. This is what goes on at the beginning of every major engagement.”

Mannarino goes on to say, “It does not matter who is in the White House. The U.S. military is the enforcement arm of the Federal Reserve. . . . Wars are engineered, and they are going to decide how much blood will be spilled to keep this twisted, disgusting debt based economic model going. That’s where we are right now.”
Mannarino says the Fed wants war to get fearful investors into the bond market. Fearful investors will buy bonds, and that demand will drive interest rates down. Mannarino explains, “Does anybody here find it suspicious that the Federal Reserve is talking about dumping its mortgage-backed securities (also called toxic assets) right now and dumping Treasury securities right now? Does anybody find that suspicious right now where geopolitical events appear to be going? If you don’t find that troubling, then you are not engaging your brain. I think the goal here of the Federal Reserve, who is the real government . . . will do anything they need to do to keep power. They don’t care how much blood they have to spill. They don’t care how much people are going to suffer. . . . The Federal Reserve has re-inflated a housing bubble. So now, those ‘toxic assets,’ those mortgage-backed securities are worth something. Now, they are going to sell these at a profit. The profit should be going to the poor people who were kicked out of their houses and lost everything. That is not going to happen. The Federal Reserve has deliberately created bubbles to save themselves. If the Federal Reserve allowed the markets to do it’s one and only job, and that is to determine fair value, we’d be out of the woods by now. We wouldn’t be facing another war right now. They refused to do this. The free market has been stolen. We really could be on the edge of a major event that would force people into the debt market. There could be huge amounts of cash coming out of the stock market because of all this fear. There could be massive amounts of cash going into suppressed assets like gold and silver. Housing could come under pressure. We could be staring at the next real Great Depression.”

In closing, Mannarino says, “The global debt problem is going to get monumentally worse. Let’s see anyone argue that. Does anyone here believe that the global debt problem is going to get better? That should tell you what you need to do. This is like adding 2 + 2. This should be so simple for people to understand what they need to do. . . . If you want to hold those pieces of paper with numbers printed on them, they are unbacked liabilities being dispersed by bankrupted governments. If you want to hold that, good for you. I can promise you I am going to be taking the opposite side to that trade, and I will win.”

In closing, Mannarino says, “The global debt problem is going to get monumentally worse. Let’s see anyone argue that. Does anyone here believe that the global debt problem is going to get better? That should tell you what you need to do. This is like adding 2 + 2. This should be so simple for people to understand what they need to do. . . . If you want to hold those pieces of paper with numbers printed on them, they are unbacked liabilities being dispersed by bankrupted governments. If you want to hold that, good for you. I can promise you I am going to be taking the opposite side to that trade, and I will win.”

Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Gregory Mannarino, founder of TradersChoice.net.

Published on Apr 11, 2017
Analyst/trader Gregory Mannarino says, “The Federal Reserve has re-inflated a housing bubble. So now, those ‘toxic assets,’ those mortgage-backed securities are worth something. Now, they are going to sell these at a profit. The profit should going to the poor people who were kicked out of their houses and lost everything. That is not going to happen. The Federal Reserve has deliberately created bubbles to save themselves. If the Federal Reserve allowed the markets to do it’s one and only job, and that is to determine fair value, we’d be out of the woods by now. We wouldn’t be facing another war right now. They refused to do this. The free market has been stolen. We really could be on the edge of a major event that would force people into the debt market. There could be huge amounts of cash coming out of the stock market because of all this fear. There could be massive amounts of cash going into suppressed assets like gold and silver. Housing could come under pressure. We could be staring at the next real Great Depression.”

According to CBS News, an astounding three-fourths of all Americans have to “scramble to cover their living costs” each month. In other words, most of the country is either living paycheck to paycheck or very close to it. But instead of tightening their belts and trying to put something away for the very hard times that are coming, most Americans are completely and utterly unprepared for what is ahead because the people that they trust on television keep telling them that everything is going to be okay. Unfortunately, everything is not going to be “okay”, and when things start falling apart all around us there is going to be a lot of anger directed toward those that have been lulling everyone into a false sense of security. One of the reasons why I am sounding the alarm so loudly is so that people will not be blindsided by the things that are about to happen to this country. As you will see below, we are on the precipice of two major wars, conditions are ripe for a devastating economic collapse, and if you were to throw in a major natural disaster or two you would have a recipe for the kind of “perfect storm” that many have been warning about.

Earlier today I focused on our looming economic problems, and in this article I want to address the potential for more military conflict in the very near future. When Donald Trump hit Syria with 59 cruise missiles, millions of Americans greatly celebrated, but much of the rest of the world was deeply alarmed. (Read The Article Here)

The Trump administration has said that more strikes are possible, but Russia and Iran are both pledging thatThe Trump administration has said that more strikes are possible, but Russia and Iran are both pledging that “we will respond with force” if any more attacks are conducted…

RUSSIA and Iran have said they will respond to further American military actions following the air strike in Syria last week.In a joint statement, the command centre for the two countries and allied groups said “we will respond to any aggression”. The statement read: “What America waged in an aggression on Syria is a crossing of red lines. From now on we will respond with force to any aggressor or any breach of red lines from whoever it is and America knows our ability to respond well.”